3 Key Takeaways From Rams Narrow Loss to the Lions

The day everybody has been waiting for has finally arrived, the first week of the 2024-2025 NFL regular season, and the first game headlined on Sunday night was a wild card rematch from this past year between the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams.

In a season where the Rams no longer have the great Aaron Donald, many faces on the defense were looking to take over as the new captain and the terror for the opposition. Faces like Byron Young, Troy Reeder, and Jared Verse were able to rack up a sack on Jared Goff as they came up in key moments to stop the Lions' offense from blowing the game out of the water.

Now, with the Rams' offense trying to one-up their stats from the year prior and show they still have the makings of a Super Bowl-caliber team, here are the three most important takeaways from the game that the Rams after the first-week matchup against the Lions.

1. Utilizing the Running Game

Matthew Stafford used his arm heavily during the game, and there were moments where they dealt with being swarmed by the Lions' defense. Here are some things they could do differently when faced with a tight window.

Kyren Williams and Ronnie Rivers will more than likely be the two-punch combo that the Rams will use to give Stafford a break when he wants it. But there are a lot of key moments where instead of getting Puka Nacua or Cooper Kupp double-teamed, they should be using Williams's speed and trucking ability to continue the time of possession.

You never want your QB1 to throw four incomplete passes and it's barely passed the first two minutes of the first quarter. If they mix in Williams or Rivers in either a first or second down, it can give Stafford a break and remove the risk of getting sacked in the pocket by a strong defense like Detroit.